A man's thoughts while interning in the Netherlands and how he has grown or not when he returns home

07/27/2010

I had a great opportunity this past weekend to go to London. My parents came to Europe to visit with me, and I met them in London. It was the first time either my parents or I were there. We had great weather, as apparently the good weather follows me all over Europe. Sunny and warm every day which I have been told is rare for London. Since I was only there for a bit under 48 hours we did very touristy things as I needed to see as much as possible in as little time as possible. Here are some highlights from the trip:

Big Ben squared (the tower and me)

Big Ben with the Eye in the background

The London Eye, which I did go up, a bit scary but great views.

A picture of the Thames river and Big Ben from the Eye

The Tower Bridge from a river boat on the Thames

View of Tower Bridge from the bridge itself

A great view looking down the Thames

As with everywhere I go, I am always making new friends, so London was no different. Here was the new friend I made:

luckily I didn't have to pay the price tag on my friends arm. This was at Harrods

The view from outside Harrods

I love cars, and there were some amazing cars all over London. Here are some of my favorites I saw:

Bugatti Veyron, wow I had never seen one of these on the streets in person in my life, saw 3 within 24 hours in London. They cost 1.4 million euros each. Oh and that Red Rolls Royce next to it isn't so bad.

This CCXR also costs around 1.33 million euros and look at that great color you get for the money.

On to some smaller priced things I can enjoy:

This was an amazing Sundae I had. The ice cream flavors in it were Vanilla, Strawberry with 12 year aged balsamic vinegar and strawberry with shortbread. It was an amazing sundae.

The after affects of the sundae, it was great.

One final picture of my father and I in an English Pub:

Now I am back in Eindhoven, no more delicious sundaes not like that at least. Certainly less of those cars here.

07/23/2010

As some of you may know I spent last weekend in Amsterdam with my parents who were visiting. They arrived early Friday morning and I left work a bit early to meet up with them Friday afternoon. We stayed right in the center of Amsterdam. It was very nice to see them and be their somewhat tour guide. As I had been to Amsterdam once before. Although I can't say I know much about the city, we were able to walk around and find our way. Friday night we went to a great dinner at a restaurant serving Dutch food. We were not sure what that may entail. But what we ended up having was great food, in a very pretty place and a lot of wine. Here are some pictures from that meal:

This is the sign outside the restaurant, the place was in 5 canal houses on a nice little street. The food turned out to be excellent. We ended up getting a tasting menu where they just brought us what the chef wanted to prepare. It was quite nice, each course also came paired with wine. Which in the end was a lot more wine they we needed.

Here are my parents at our table enjoying some of the wine early in the meal. Little did we know what was ahead of us. As I mentioned all the courses were paired with wine, but initially we thought only some of the courses would be paired because well it was a 7 course tasting menu. But as I said it was really good food, good service, a pretty place and a great meal. I live to eat, so it was a delightful experience. I made the mistake of telling my dad that I thought he was photogenic, the rest of the trip he told me how photogenic he was regardless of if he was smiling or not.

Each room in the restaurant has themes, not like planet hollywood or a tacky place themes but just decorating directions. We were in the medieval room which had this Knight I am posed with in a corner, as well as some other relics of that time and paintings to match the period. I believe there was a Rembrandt room and I don't recall the others.

On Saturday we didn't start the day with great weather so we decided to take a canal boat tour of the city. Which i liked a lot due to my affinity for boats and cities. It was a great way to see Amsterdam as most of the city encompassed by canals. We saw quite a lot, and I just wish the tour was a bit longer.

The canals make seeing the city very interesting and pretty. After the tour we just decided to head towards some interesting areas and walk around. We took the tram which was interesting and expedited our travels a bit. Though sometimes slowed them down as we didn't actually know where we wanted to go, but it allowed us to travel further. Plus my feet were killing me from the shoes I bought:

So we ended up just walking around and seeing some nice areas. We had a less than exciting dinner the second night probably more because we had very high expectations for a steak place, that wasn't anything but plain. We took a nice walk around the city after dinner.

This is raw herring, it is very popular in the Netherlands as a snack. I don't really like fish so have no interest in it, but it was my goal to get my father to try some. He did, and I am pretty sure he is pleased he did as he enjoyed it a lot.

On Sunday we decided to take a bit of an adventure, well for me it was just going back to Eindhoven but my parents came to see where I had been living for the past five weeks or so. I was very pleased they came back too, because I wanted them to see my apartment and more so my town. Unfortunately the train that I normally would take to and from Amsterdam wasn't running so the 90 minute train ride took well over 150 minutes. But we did see some different sites as we took a different route:

In Eindhoven we didn't have endless time as we got there much later than I had hoped we would. But the weather as is normally the case here was perfect. We walked around the areas I hang out and enjoyed a very nice Sangria at one of the various bars in Eindhoven:

It was also a nice excuse to try one of the fancier places to eat in Eindhoven as I don't eat out much here, I cook for myself usually. But more so I certainly don't usually eat at nicer places as I usually eat alone. So we went to a place that looked very nice and I had walked by many times thinking would good. The food was fine. Nothing too crazy, but we sat outside on the patio and enjoyed our time together as well as Diva the French Bulldog that "lived" or I should say was perched right by our table.

I have always wanted a dog and French Bulldogs have for a while been the dog of choice for me. Though I can't say Bridget has prevented me from having a dog, but her unwillingness to pick up after the dog's waste has been sad. So in the meantime I can go back and play with Diva some more.

Today I am off to London to meet with my parents again, so next week I will have more details and more pictures.

07/20/2010

It has been a while since I posted mostly because I have been so busy at work and focusing all of my free time on my project.I wanted to talk a bit more about the project I am doing while I am here.I thought I would start with a brief overview of Philips, most of you have heard of the company but not many people seem to really know much about them or why the name sounds familiar.I would guarantee if you look around your house you most likely own at least one Philips product if not more.

Royal Philips Electronics is simply known as Philips.It is a Dutch company that was founded in 1891, and began with the production of light bulbs.Philips has since diversified and is broken up into three divisions: health care, lighting and consumer lifestyle.Philips is a huge company; in 2009 it employed over 121,000 people worldwide and is a Fortune 500 company.

We are the number 1 worldwide producer of light bulbs as well as electric shavers.Philips with the help of other major companies like Sony is credited with the invention of the cassette, CD, DVD and Blu-ray disc.Philips truly is a huge diverse company.

Where do I fit into all this?I am working for Philips Design which is a semi-autonomous group that works with all three divisions within Philips.When I arrived here my boss gave me a lot of leeway to decide what I would be doing here.I decided to work on a product that interested me the most.The product is an mp3 player that is fitness oriented.The product is called the Activa and it debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, but it did not launch until June of this year. The goal of the device is to encourage the user to work out more efficiently and longer. It works towards this goal by providing vocal encouragement during your workout through your earphones telling you how many calories you have burned and how long you have been working out. It also creates music playlists on the go, if you should work out harder it will play more up tempo music or if it is time to slow down it will be play music with a slower tempo.

I am working on the marketing and positioning for the next generation player.I have been trying to come up with ideas for how we can increase awareness and sales of the product.This is challenging as mp3 player market is very saturated; though we see this as a fitness device more than an mp3 player.The Activa has won awards for its’ product packaging which reminded me of Andrea’s blog about designing the packaging for her olive oil company.Here are some pictures of the packaging.

What we did I believe is very clever.The player comes packaged in a re-usable water bottle.

Everything you need comes in that bottle, so very little packaging is wasted or ends up in the trash.

And here is a picture of the device itself:

Philips being a global company the team that I am working with is located in Asia.The Activa team was in Eindhoven (where I am) on Monday for meetings and I met with them for the first time.I did a presentation to propose a new way to position the product that I had been working on.Although they did not necessarily agree with all my ideas, they were impressed with the presentation and concept.My boss has been very supportive and said we just need to be more creative and come up with new approaches.

Although yesterday did not go as I had hoped it would, it was a great learning experience.Being from a sales background I am very used to being told no, this felt a bit different since I was pitching my idea more than a product.But again this is all part of the experience, and I am glad I was given the opportunity to present to the group.My boss and I still believe that parts of the concept can be implemented into the project.So although I won’t be able to claim a whole new business model that Philips explores in the future as I had hoped, I have been learning every day I have been here, and will continue to do so.

07/10/2010

One thing I have been enjoying while I have been here in the Netherlands that I was very concerned about before I arrived is the food. As anyone who has ever had me at their house for dinner knows; I am a picky eater. I don't like many things, and usually am not willing to try much either. So the fact that I am enjoying the food here is a very nice surprise for me.

I have been eating regular food like pizza and salad most days. But I have also tried many Dutch foods. My friend Maarten has hosted me at his house and cooked for me twice. I have also had the pleasure of eating a delicious dessert called a Boscha Bol which is like an éclair but in a ball shape. Very tasty.

Those that know me well know I love French fries and although they are actually a Belgian food, they are abundant in this region. Any place where French fries are sold on street corners to be eaten in a large cone with mayonnaise is alright with me. I am someone who actually likes mayo on my fries but the amount that is put on is even too much for me.

I have also enjoyed a delicious appetizer treat called bitterballen which is like a little croquet filled with pork. I can see them being very popular if they were sold in the U.S. It is served with mustard (which I still don't like).

Perhaps the greatest highlight of my trip here in the food department came yesterday. My friend Juliette told me a couple of weeks ago about a legendary almost mythical person known simply as the Pizza Man. The legend had it that this guy who lives in Eindhoven loves pizza and built a stone pizza oven at his home. And on Fridays he opens his house to anyone who wants to come over. As if this were not good enough this man has fresh dough and all the toppings a person can imagine including fresh vegetables, meats, all different types of cheeses and anything else you have ever desired on a pizza. Supposedly you make the pizza with all the fresh ingredients and just hang out at his house. He also has beer, wine and soda as well as gardens to sit in a trampoline on his roof and much more.

My friend invited me to go with her a few weeks ago and I couldn't so yesterday she & I went to visit this legendary pizza man and it was all true. It was one of the coolest things I have done. It was an amazing way to meet all different sorts of people from all over the world. Last night there were 2 women from China, people from Belgium, France the U.S. (me) and many other places. I wonder how different people hear about it. It is pretty much a secret among the people at Philips that know about it. I asked the woman who sits next to me at work if she knew anything about a pizza man as she has lived in Eindhoven for quite a while and she knew nothing.

The pizza man experience was pure bliss. The way it works is you walk in take a number as that is how they keep order amongst who can make their pizza because the pizza oven can only fit 2 pizzas at a time in it. Juliette and I decided to share a pizza because she doesn't eat much. Our pizza had 3 types of cheese, including fresh mozzarella, it had bacon, garlic onions and fresh tomatoes. it was absolutely amazing.

This is a picture of the pizza oven there is a man that either still works in a pizza place or used to that is in charge of the cooking of the pizzas. He takes the pizzas from the area where you make the pie and puts in in the oven. He also chops wood for the oven and places that in and removes the finished creations. You can see his legs in the picture.

This was our pizza fresh from the oven. Going in I was a little scared because right away we realized we left off shredded cheese. Which you shred by hand yourself. But as you can see it looks and was delicious. The crust was thin but crispy and everything cooked to perfection.

The experience is great and all you have to do is donate what you feel comforable with. The pizza man has a refridgerator completely stocked with beer so you can drink as much or as little as you like. What you can't see in this picture or what happened immediately after I took this was I opened my beer moved the table a bit a spilled my beer all over our delicious fresh pizza. Luckily it was saved and only about one piece was completely soaked in beer which did help to cool that piece off quite a lot.

We enjoyed our meal and I am certain that I will go back to the pizza man before my trip to Eindhoven is complete. It is just a great experience. The garden seating the kids on the trampoline the relaxation. It is something that I can't really imagine being replicated. Had I not seen it with my own eyes I don't think I would have truly grasped the entirety of how great it truly is. Even the fact the Pizza Man doesn't charge anything to people. He does accept donations, but you can go and eat and drink and donate what you are comfortable with, it is something that I really can't imagine happening in the U.S. I made a donation.

07/08/2010

As everyone can imagine the world cup is the biggest thing going on here.The game on Tuesday night was a blast, my friends and I went to the Piazza where we have been watching most of the games. It is a a large outdoor square in the middle of town where a large screen has been erected to allow for public viewing of the matches. We squeezed in with thousands of our Dutch friends all wearing orange to cheer the Dutch (Oranje) team onto victory.Although the Netherlands allowed Uruguay to stay alive and keep it close for most of the game the crowd was very excited and happy.

*The Piazza just before the match started on Tuesday

That night was just crazy there are no other words to describe the electricity in the air; the pure jubilation and the exhilaration.It was truly a great night, and something I don’t think I will forget anytime soon.

This was on a Tuesday night, everyone or I should say I went to work the next day. It was like a parade of people constantly going by all of them in a great mood. The only thing I can really compare it to, is when I was in my undergrad at Indiana University my senior year back in 2002 (dating myself I know) and we went to the Final Four. It was that sort of excitement but on a much larger scale.

Here is a video from the second Holland Goal as you can see it was quite a scene there:

And another video after the game was won:

The thing with the Netherlands is WE have never won a world cup, though WE have lost in the finals 2 times prior.The Dutch think of the Germans as their rivals.According to my German friends here the Germans do not necessarily think of the Dutch as their rivals.The point being that most Dutch people I know wanted Germany to beat Spain, so that WE could beat Germany for the World Cup championship.

People are actually sad in my office today that WE do not get to play Germany for the championship.It is very interesting.To me I think I will be happy with a victory on Sunday then in the next world cup WE can focus on beating Germany.But for now Sunday is a very important and exciting day on the horizon.

07/03/2010

Today is a special outside the Netherlands blog post. Today and this weekend is the one and only time I will see Bridget over the course of the summer. We are in Paris, both of our first times there. We chose the city of lights because of the availability of direct flights for Bridget and its relative close proximity to Eindhoven. It was about a 4 hour train ride.

I would say we are both really enjoying it. Although the weather hasn't been as good as we would like so far, I think the rest of the time we are here it should improve. We both arrived yesterday afternoon and it was over 90 degrees. We are staying in the Les Halles region (1st) of Paris. The hotel is very nice and we have a cute corner room with some great French doors, opening from our bathroom and off our bedroom. It is very pretty. We are about 2 blocks from the Louvre. Today we went over there since it was raining very hard, but while eating lunch the rain stopped and we decided to walk over to the Latin Quarter. We explored and walked around Notre Dame and other cathedrals. Tonight we are planning a trip to the Eiffel Tower and then dinner nearby. And maybe a walk around Champs Des Elyses.

We have been enjoying the food quite a lot. As most of you know I enjoy food a lot Bridget also likes food some. But we ate at a cute little place by our hotel last night recommended by the Concierge of our hotel, and had a delicious steak frites. Then we went to the Ritz which is a fancy hotel next door and went to their bar which I had read about. It was by far the most expensive bar either of us had ever seen/been to ever. It is called Hemingway and had pictures and mementos of Ernest Hemingway. The drinks ranged from 30 euros for regular drinks up over 1250 euros for some special drinks. We just had one round but it was definitely an interesting place, and somewhere to see.

Here are some additional pictures from our first full day in Paris.

Bridget and I in front of Notre Dame. It was really crowded in this part of town. But as you can see from the earlier picture the rain had stopped so that was great.

06/30/2010

So the bike I have and showed on the blog a few weeks ago got some interesting feedback. It was unique (like when Bridget tells me I am special) I thought, though lacked a bit in comfort.

After riding for an hour lost in search of the Philips High Tech Campus (where everyone else here at Philips works in town) I thought I don't ever want to ride this thing again. So I went in search of a new bike. But you don't find the right bike the right bike finds you.

I am happy to say that last night the bike found me and well I have a new bike.

Just in time too because I am heading a few places tonight with some people that are in opposite directions and I presume they will all be on their bikes. So now I can also ride happily. Just like the last one this bike was cheap. Ace your offer for $0.23 covers over 2% of the cost so if everyone just chips in micro donations I think I can get there. I will use my salary as an advance for those coming payments.

I was very pleased this worked out, now I just need to start biking more, and hope this bike lasts me the summer. It doesn't rattle much , it has gears which I doubt I will use, hand brakes as opposed to the last one being push back on the pedal breaks, the seat is actually attached (the last one wasn't) and it has a working light. Which by law in the Netherlands you are supposed to have a light on when riding at night. This is a law that is overlooked by many and I have not seen enforced. But at least I will be safer now that people will be able to see me, which they will want to do on this flashy new for me ride!

06/28/2010

Another weekend has passed and I had another adventure. While I have been thrilled with the weather in the Netherlands for the most part, it has been get a bit hotter here. This weekend the temperature reached around 30 degrees Celsius (~90) so it was pretty warm. There isn't much humidity here so it is still an improvement from places like Boston & DC, but it is still hot. So this weekend someone made the great decision that we should do an intern trip to the beach. The chosen beach is called Schevenengin (you may have to zoom in a bit on the map) this is part of Den Haag in the Western part of the Netherlands. It is on I believe the North Sea.

To get to the beach it involved a 90 minute train ride to Den Haag, from their we took a 15-20 tram ride and arrived at the beach. It was a nice resort town reminiscent of many resort towns in the U.S.

As you can see it was pretty crowded. Even when we got on the train in Eindhoven there were many other passengers on that train going to the same beach so we knew it would be crowded. The beach was very wide and had bars and beach clubs when you first arrived on the sand. Their was a boardwalk like area that was concrete but has shops, bars and places to get food. There was also a large pier with a place that people could bungee jump from.

No trip to the beach is complete without going in the water, or at least getting your feet wet. This trip was no exception. As it was so hot outside a bunch of us decided to go into the water. The water was about 58 degrees yesterday which I didn't know until today. What I did know yesterday was it was cold. But about 5 of us ventured in and all jumped in and enjoyed the cooling off. There were quite a lot of people in the water. It was definitely a fun adventure. One that I hope we do again. Here is a picture of some of my friends that went. In all I believe there probably were around 25 - 30 people that went with us. So it was really a nice time.

06/22/2010

On Saturday morning I took the 80 minute train ride up to Amsterdam for the weekend. It was definitely a worthwhile experience. I went with Marika, who I was in Den Bosch with on Thursday. I would say we definitely had fun. Even though it was cold and rainy there, we didn't let that spoil our moods. We stayed at a hotel near the train station and the red light district. It was one of the smallest rooms I have ever seen in my life. The bed which you will see below did not allow me to extend my legs fully.

I really enjoyed the sights of Amsterdam. It is such a historic place. I love the way the canals criss cross the city, and thanks to Marika we almost never got lost. But I am concerned for when I go back there in a few weeks. Because I have no doubt that I will get hopelessly lost. I guess on the bright side, because everyone speaks English I can just ask for directions.

One thing I found a bit sad was that in parts of Amsterdam at stores it appeared that some of the staff didn't even speak Dutch. I appreciate that they speak English to me, but I don't want them to lose their own culture in the process.

Bridget was really excited when I said I would be going to the Netherlands because Bridget loves clogs. Unfortunately the only place I have seen clogs for sale here is at the tourist stores. No one wears them here, but I did find one that fit me.

Below are some pictures of some buildings and other things I enjoyed while in Amsterdam. I also made an amazing Karaoke video at the Heineken Brewery but I haven't decided if I should show that.

I know that one is pretty touristy, but it actually is in a really nice park. Near the Van Gogh museum, which I wasn't too into. But those that know me, know I don't have an eye for the arts. I did really enjoy the Heineken Brewery. Those that know me, also know I don't love beer, and Heineken definitely isn't a favorite. But I have been enjoying beer more here, and Heineken I think tastes better. The tour for 15 euros is way better than the Sam Adams brewery tour in Boston. It isn't a cultural attack just a fact. The tour was 90 minutes, involved a ride, lots of interactive aspects, 3 free beers.

Unfortunately the file format of the video of me singing karaoke didn't work, if you really want to see it, email me and I will send it out. I was not drinking when I did it, and the song is a traditional Dutch song. Which means I don't know the words. The people at work thought it was hilarious but they are Dutch.

06/18/2010

I have been encouraged to leave Eindhoven the town I am settled in, to see more of the Netherlands. Although I do like Eindhoven a lot I decided to take people up on this idea and took a short trip to a nearby city called Hertogenbosch known as Den Bosch last night. I met Bridget's friend from college Marika there where she was visiting the nearby town she was born in with her mother. I am really glad she invited me to join them. It was an adorable little town. It had a few little canals or maybe rivers (not sure there is always a difference here), and some really great historical architecture.

I had a very nice dinner with Marika and her mom and then Marika and I walked around the city some more. Some pictures from Den Bosch are below. I am excited because Marika and I will be going to Amsterdam on Saturday for the weekend. It is so great to see someone you know and be able to talk about things in each others lives. As much as I am enjoying my new friends it is nice to see someone I know and enjoy.

This is the canal/river right as you enter the city:

This is the main square:

This is a great street filled with restaurants that we ate on:

You can see the cathedral in the background above this sculpture garden we went to: